If you manage an online brand or e-commerce business that uses blog articles and social media posts as a means to attract and engage followers, monitoring the performance of your online content could be a determining factor in the success or failure of your enterprise. By knowing what pieces grab your followers’ attention—and similarly, what turns them off—you can give your followers more of what they want and less of what they don’t, creating a better experience on both ends. But with so many publisher analytics tools available these days, how are you to know which one is right for your business?

To help you better understand your website traffic, here’s a quick look at two of the most widely used tools for measuring content analytics. No matter if you just learned how to build a business website, or if you’ve had a great site up-and-running for years, there’s never been a better time to spend a few minutes thinking about how to best measure the influence of your online content upon your goals.

Google Analytics

Undoubtedly the most popular option when it comes to measuring Web stats, Google Analytics continues to dominate the landscape by providing a free, easy-to-use set of tools that are a cinch to set up on almost any site. Once Google Analytics is set up, the service allows webmasters to collect a lot of information about visitors, including where in the world they’re visiting from, what they’re clicking on, what they’re searching for, how long they spend on each page, and much more. By knowing which blog posts are getting the most hits, and how much traffic your social media posts are driving to your website, you can develop a much deeper understanding as to what content strikes a chord with your readers.

Despite the breadth of information offered by Google Analytics’ comprehensive publisher dashboard, it’s not the perfect tool for everyone. One area for which Google Analytics receives constant criticism is its inability to accurately track up-to-the-minute, real-time statistics for websites using its service. And though Google continues to improve its Analytics product, business owners who require more detailed minute-by-minute reporting tend to look elsewhere for their tracking needs.

Chartbeat

Chartbeat is another popular option for webmasters who want to keep tabs on how well their published content is performing. Similar to Google Analytics, Chartbeat provides an array of interesting information about your visitors’ activity, including their location, type of device being used, most visited pages, etc. The interface on Chartbeat is a bit more elegantly designed than Google’s offering, and the platform offers additional stats on a few key areas that Google Analytics does not. The catch is that it also comes with a price tag of $9.95 per month for up to five domains. (All curious Chartbeaters can take advantage of a free 30-day trial before committing to the service.)

Among the most significant distinctions between Chartbeat and Google Analytics, though, is that Chartbeat was designed primarily with editorial teams and content publishers in mind, rather than owners of small businesses and e-commerce shops. Chartbeat also reports to have much more accurate real-time information when compared to Google Analytics, a claim backed by many of the Web’s most renowned publishers. Many teams also appreciate Chartbeat for the fact that it allows each individual user to create personalized dashboards, rather than only offering one default view for everyone involved.

Conclusion

Though both of these platforms provide in-depth analytics for publishers, one might be a better fit for your business. Chartbeat might provide more precise data about a few key metrics, while Google Analytics offers details about a broader set of statistics. The good news is that there’s nothing to stop you from setting up both of them, and comparing the statistics yourself.

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Michael Benninger

Michael is an expert copywriter from PACIFIC. He lives by the beach in San Diego and, in addition to writing about all things Internet for Top 10 Best, he enjoy movies, technology, and contributing to other print and online publications.

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